Police Body Cam: car jumps tow truck ramp 05.24.23 (GA) "Updated 06.20.23"

[TowForce]

 

[TowForce]

Wild Lowndes Co. crash video shows importance of Move Over Law

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - WALB News 10 has learned new details about a wild crash on Highway 84 in Lowndes County that many have seen all over social media.

The video has been shared on just about every social media platform in the last week. It’s body cam footage from a Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office deputy who was on the opposite side of the highway investigating another crash.

While on the scene, the video shows a car driving up the back of a tow truck full speed, and then flying over the truck and flipping in the air. The deputy then rushes to the aid of the driver, reportedly a woman who survived.

The incident is raising awareness of Georgia’s Move Over Law. Which requires drivers to slow down, and/or move over a lane when approaching emergency vehicles on the side of the road, which includes tow trucks.

“People not moving over actually has hit my family as well. In 1966 when my father was 12, he lost his father, my grandfather. He was hooking up to a vehicle and a drunk driver rear-ended the tow truck that he was right behind causing him to pass away at the scene,” Louis Kenda, part owner of Kenda Truck Center, said.

To protect roadside workers and drivers with disabled vehicles, AAA is offering some precautionary tips:

• Remain alert and avoid distractions when driving
• Keep an eye out for emergency vehicles, tow trucks, etc. that are stopped on the side of the road
• Slow down and if possible, move one lane over

“I can control the load that I am towing, I can control where it’s at once I arrive on the scene, and I can control how it gets off my truck. The only thing I cannot control is the people driving by. That is the worst nightmare,” Kenda said.

WALB is still working to confirm the condition of the driver who flew over the truck, and if she is facing charges. Penalties for not abiding by Georgia’s Move Over Law include a fine of $500 and three points on your license.

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[TowNews]

Two injured when car goes airborne in Georgia

 

May 31—VALDOSTA — Two people were injured when a car took a flying leap over a tow truck May 24 in Lowndes County, Georgia.

 

At about 11:20 a.m., a rollback tow truck was parked in the left lane of U.S. 84 near the Brooks County line with its lights flashing, according to a Georgia State Patrol statement.

 

The rollback was helping clear the scene of an earlier wreck and was surrounded by law enforcement vehicles.

 

Suddenly, a car coming up in the lane behind the rollback struck the truck and went up its ramps, vaulting over the tow truck about 120 feet before hitting another car on its way down, the state patrol said.

 

The driver of the airborne car — described as a 21-year-old Tallahassee, Florida woman — was seriously injured and taken to South Georgia Medical Center, while a passenger in her car — a 30-year-old Hahira man — received minor injuries, authorities said.

 

A Lowndes County deputy was hit by flying debris but was not seriously hurt, Sheriff Ashley Paulk said.

 

The accident was caught on a deputy's bodycam "and we've gotten calls from around the world asking for the video," Paulk said.

 

Authorities told the media there was an empty car seat in the rear of the vehicle but initially there was a search of the area to make sure an infant had not been ejected before responders learned there was no child in the car at the time of the accident.

 

A Georgia law, commonly known as the the "move over law," requires motorists to shift lanes when approaching emergency responders along the roadway.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

 

Terry Richards is the senior reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times.

 

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[TowForce]

This Is Not a Drill: Florida Woman Soars 120 Feet In the Air When Her Vehicle Drives Onto Back of Tow Truck and Lives to Tell the Tale

 

One woman can call herself a survivor after a “Dukes of Hazzard”-style car crash nearly took her life.

 

Unlike the television show, the woman didn’t have a stunt double but still considers herself a “warrior” for championing through the ordeal.

 

A police report states that Tanaijsha Bruton, 21, soared 120 feet in the air after driving onto the back of a tow truck in Lowndes County near Valdosta, Georgia on May 24. Footage of the extraordinary experience was captured on video and went viral shortly afterward.

 

TV history was made in November 1978, when a stuntman on the Georgia set of “The Dukes of Hazzard” propelled the show’s legendary 1969 Dodge Charger, known as the General Lee, off a dirt ramp and soared over a police car. This jump, reaching a height of 16 feet and spanning a distance of 82 feet, resulted in the car being completely wrecked upon landing.

It’s unclear what happened to Bruton’s car after the crash in May, and while she doesn’t remember the details of the incident, she feels the pain and had to undergo at least four surgeries for internal injuries.

 

“I’m just grateful that throughout all the surgeries, I’m still here and able to see another day. I thought it was over. I blacked out. I don’t really remember much, but I know that I thought I was going to die, and it hurts. It hurts really, really bad. I felt everything,” she said.

 

What she does remember, however, replays in her mind.

 

“When I go to sleep that’s pretty much what I dream about. It just replays over and over. Nobody expected me to make it. Not even my family. They didn’t expect me to make it at all,” she told WALB in an interview.

 

The young woman was initially transported to the South Georgia Medical Center after the accident. Then she was moved to the University of Florida Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, and released on Friday, June 9, after spending two weeks in the hospital, most of which was in the intensive care unit.

 

Had it not been for the video going viral on social media, huge parts of the accident would be lost to Burton.

 

“My family didn’t want to show me the video, but of course, I’m hard-headed and got on social media,” the Tallahassee woman said, adding, “One of my friends mentioned me in the video and said, ‘Oh this is you,’ and I was like this me?! This my car?!”

 

As she heals, investigators are trying to piece together what exactly happened. Bruton claims the blame for the accident is solely being placed on her but believes others should be held responsible also. She claims that the truck was in the middle of the road when the accident it was responding to was on the other side, and Burton did not see the truck’s emergency lights on.

 

However, the state’s patrol report reportedly shows that the lights were, and it’s unclear to confirm from the short video.

 

Bruton will be charged with driving while unlicensed and a use of seatbelts in passenger vehicles violation.

 

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